Adventures of Tin Can Lulu

Door County is on a peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, in the state of Wisconsin. It’s known for its long shoreline and many parks. Its nickname is the Cape Cod of the Midwest!

Before our trip we got recommendations of things to see, places to explore, the best shopping and restaurants to try from neighbors Lynn and Don McKenney. They hail from this part of Wisconsin and definitely are experts!

Let’s start with the exploring.

Whitefish Dunes State Park has 863 acres of forest and dunes on rugged Lake Michigan shore with a mile of sand beach, two miles of rocky shore, and the highest sand dunes in Wisconsin. We did a 4 mile hike up to Old Baldy Point and were treated with a view over the tree tops to the town of Valmy. The dunes are covered with dense grass and bush coverings. Also the state had several signs regarding the $150.00 fine for climbing or walking on the dunes (in order to protect the dunes). A tad different than other sand dunes we have been too.

Peninsula State Park was established in 1909 and has eight miles of Green Bay shoreline wrapped around northern hardwood forests, wetlands, meadows and 150 foot dolostone cliffs. Our 5 mile hike took us to Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. The views of the bay were amazing even with the haze from the smoke from the Canadian fires. 

Washington Island is in northern Door County situated in Lake Michigan. The island is approximately 5 miles wide and 6 miles long. It’s a 30 minute ferry ride to the island and we chose to take Mellow Yellow (our tandem) as our means of transportation. The majority of the roads on the island are paved and we cycled 30 miles circling the outer roads. We had lunch at the famous Albatross hamburger stand. The line was long and the wait was longer (over 30 minutes) but the burger, fries and shake were yummy.

There are 11 lighthouses scattered on both sides of the Door peninsula. The largest is Cana Island Lighthouse located near the town of Baileys Harbor. You have to take a short walk across Lake Michigan to see this 89 foot tall lighthouse. Built in 1869 and lit in 1870, the light is approximately 85 feet above water level with a visual range of 18 miles. A 97 step, cast iron, spiral staircase leads to the watch room. The light was electrified in 1945. We were able to climb to the top. Amazing views!

Sturgeon Bay Canal Pier Head Lighthouse, located just off the coastline of Lake Michigan, was constructed on a pier at the eastern end of the canal in late 1881. In 1939 the lighthouse was taken over by the Coast Guard and is still run by the Coast Guard today.

Next up food!

Agriculture has played an important role in Door County since the 1800s. Today there are still many family owned orchards that focus on cherries and apples, as well as berries, dairy and other products. We have never eaten cherries that are so sweet, meaty and tasty. Will be hard to eat cherries from elsewhere in the future. 

We visited both cheese factories in Door County and fell in love with Renards. Renards’ cheeses are handcrafted using milk from local dairy farms in Door and Kewaunee counties. Fun fact.. it takes 5 quarts of cow’s milk to make 1 pound of cheese! Cheese curds are a favorite of ours, fresh or fried. Curds are one of the early stages of cheese making and Renards sells over 300 pounds in a day!

Fish boils are an integral part of Door County culture. Scandinavian settlers brought the tradition from their homeland more than 70 years ago. What is a fish boil? Locally caught whitefish boiled on an open fire in a large metal kettle. There are multiple steps in the cooking process… add salt (approximately 3 lbs) to water and bring to a boil. Next add locally grown red skin potatoes. Thirty minutes later add white onions. Then the basket of whitefish is added and boiled for seven minutes. The grand finale is adding kerosene to the fire, it boils over and the scum and fat in the kettle burn off. What a show!

We choose the Old Post Office Restaurant in Ephraim (great recommendation from Lynn and Don) overlooking Green Bay. This restaurant previously was the Peterson General Store built in 1874. It is the only restaurant to debone your fish for you. Did we mention dessert was cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. Yummy! Plus we had a wonderful sunset view! 

Fresh cherry pie seemed to be our favorite dessert! When you buy the pie and it is still warm it’s simply the best! 

Last but not least we went to Green Bay to Al’s Hamburgers. This was on the tv show Man vs Food and Earle had this on the list to get to! So that we did and had hamburgers, fries and a BIG chocolate shake!

Bicycle Riding

We did several bicycle rides while in Door County. Two left from our campground…we did a 38 mile ride up to Sturgeon Bay and back, and 45 miles that went south to Dykesville, Lincoln and back.

We found an amazing ride from Sturgeon Bay that rode along Green Bay thru the middle of the peninsula and down the Lake Michigan side.. we liked this 25 mile ride so much we did it twice! Each route show cased rolling hills, corn, hay and soybean fields, dairy farms and orchards. Beautiful scenery and amazingly quiet roads!

Our last few days was spent in Milton, Wisconsin. Milton is located between Madison and Janesville. Remember when we mentioned about being flexible…this time we had mechanical issues with Mellow Yellow (our tandem). Crazy time for us! We had wheel issues…broke a spoke on our gravel rear wheel and our road rear wheel had a crack in the rim. We were able to find a great bicycle shop in Janesville that fixed the broken spoke and we shipped off the cracked rim back to the manufacturer. Got a great 25 mile ride in!

Madison, Wisconsin friends Kevin and Carol Santulis spent a day with us and we visited the Rotary Gardens in Janesville.

Kevin & Earle worked together in Cleveland 38 years ago. Kevin and Carol (mostly Carol) are astrophotography and have many stunning photos. They both are quite active in the local astronomy club. The four of us had dinner at a wonderful restaurant on Lake Koshkonong called North Shore Chop House. Amazing food! 

Good times in Wisconsin have come to a close and now we are heading back to the heat in Florida.